Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution, patterns and determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population.
Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of deaths per 1,000 individuals per year; thus, a mortality rate of 9.5 in a population of 1,000 would mean 9.5 deaths per year in that entire population, or 0.95% out of the total. It is distinct from "morbidity", which is either the prevalence or incidence of a disease, and also from the incidence rate.
Estimates of the casualties from the Iraq War have come in several forms, and those estimates of different types of Iraq War casualties vary greatly.
The United States embargo against Cuba has prevented U.S. businesses from conducting trade or commerce with Cuban interests since 1958. Modern diplomatic relations are cold, stemming from historic conflict and divergent political ideologies. U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba are comprehensive and impact all sectors of the Cuban economy. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history.
The Lancet, one of the oldest scientific medical journals in the world, published two peer-reviewed studies on the effect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation on the Iraqi mortality rate. The first was published in 2004; the second in 2006. The studies estimate the number of excess deaths caused by the occupation, both direct and indirect.
On 6 August 1990, four days after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) placed a comprehensive embargo on Iraq. The sanctions stayed largely in force until 22 May 2003, and persisted in part, including reparations to Kuwait. The original stated purposes of the sanctions were to compel Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, to pay reparations, and to disclose and eliminate any weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
In demography and medical geography, epidemiological transition is a theory which "describes changing population patterns in terms of fertility, life expectancy, mortality, and leading causes of death." For example, a phase of development marked by a sudden increase in population growth rates brought by improved food security and innovations in public health and medicine, can be followed by a re-leveling of population growth due to subsequent declines in fertility rates. Such a transition can account for the replacement of infectious diseases by chronic diseases over time due to increased life span as a result of improved health care and disease prevention. This theory was originally posited by Abdel Omran in 1971.
The Cuban government operates a national health system and assumes fiscal and administrative responsibility for the health care of all its citizens. All healthcare in Cuba is free to Cuban residents, although challenges include low salaries for doctors, poor facilities, poor provision of equipment, and the frequent absence of essential drugs. There are no private hospitals or clinics as all health services are government-run. The current public health minister of Cuba is José Angel Portal Miranda.
In Nigeria, there has been a major progress in the improvement of health since 1950. Although lower respiratory infections, neonatal disorders and HIV/AIDS have ranked the topmost causes of deaths in Nigeria, in the case of other diseases such as monkeypox, polio, malaria and tuberculosis, progress has been achieved. Among other threats to health are malnutrition, pollution and road traffic accidents. In 2020, Nigeria had the highest number of cases of COVID-19 in Africa.
The emerging field of conflict epidemiology offers a more accurate method to measure deaths caused during violent conflicts or wars that can generate more reliable numbers than before to guide decision-makers.
On January 9, 2008 the World Health Organization reported the results of the "Iraq Family Health Survey" published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study surveyed 9,345 households across Iraq and was carried out in 2006 and 2007. It estimated 151,000 deaths due to violence from March 2003 through June 2006.
Deficient sanitation systems, poor nutrition, and inadequate health services have pushed Haiti to the bottom of the World Bank's rankings of health indicators. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 80 percent of Haiti's population lives below the poverty line. In fact, 75% of the Haitian population lives off of $2.50 per day. Consequently, malnutrition is a significant problem. Half the population can be categorized as "food insecure," and half of all Haitian children are undersized as a result of malnutrition. Less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, a rate that compares poorly even with other less-developed nations. Haiti's healthy life expectancy at birth is 63 years. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that only 43 percent of the target population receives the recommended immunizations.
Sudan is still one of the largest countries in Africa, even after the split of the Northern and Southern parts. It is one of the most densely populated countries in the region and is home to over 37.9 million people.
Casualty estimation often refers to the process of statistically estimating the number of injuries or deaths in a battle or natural disaster that has already occurred. Estimates based on detailed information on individual deaths, but also extending to statistical extrapolations, became known as casualty recording in the early twenty-first century. Casualty prediction is the process of estimating the number of injuries or deaths that might occur in a planned or potential battle or natural disaster.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is a national and international public health agency and research institute working in the area of global health statistics and impact evaluation, located at the University of Washington in Seattle. IHME is headed by Christopher J.L. Murray, a physician, health economist, and global health researcher, and professor at the University of Washington Department of Global Health, which is part of the School of Medicine. IHME conducts research and trains scientists, policymakers, and the public in health metrics concepts, methods, and tools. Its mission includes judging the effectiveness and efficacy of health initiatives and national health systems. IHME also trains students at the post-baccalaureate and post-graduate levels.
The 2010s Haiti cholera outbreak was the first modern large-scale outbreak of cholera—a disease once considered beaten back largely due to the invention of modern sanitation. The disease was reintroduced to Haiti in October 2010, not long after the disastrous earthquake earlier that year, and since then cholera has spread across the country and become endemic, causing high levels of both morbidity and mortality. Nearly 800,000 Haitians have been infected by cholera, and more than 9,000 have died, according to the United Nations (UN). Cholera transmission in Haiti today is largely a function of eradication efforts including WASH, education, oral vaccination, and climate variability. Early efforts were made to cover up the source of the epidemic, but thanks largely to the investigations of journalist Jonathan M. Katz and epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, it is widely believed to be the result of contamination by infected United Nations peacekeepers deployed from Nepal. In terms of total infections, the outbreak has since been surpassed by the war-fueled 2016–2021 Yemen cholera outbreak, although the Haiti outbreak is still one of the most deadly modern outbreaks. After a three-year hiatus, new cholera cases reappeared in October 2022.
International sanctions are political and economic decisions that are part of diplomatic efforts by countries, multilateral or regional organizations against states or organizations either to protect national security interests, or to protect international law, and defend against threats to international peace and security. These decisions principally include the temporary imposition on a target of economic, trade, diplomatic, cultural or other restrictions that are lifted when the motivating security concerns no longer apply, or when no new threats have arisen.
Haiti is impacted by structural violence, a form of dysfunction where social structures prevent certain groups of people from having access to basic human rights, like education and healthcare. This has resulted from its colonial history, and from decades of political instability and social unrest. Additionally, Haitians are financially impoverished and within Haiti, there exist social inequalities. In 2012, 58.5% of its population was below its poverty line. Educational standards within the nation are low, where its literacy rate is about 60.7%, below the 84.1% global average. Haiti is also globally ranked lower than most other nations in various measurements of health outcomes. Such health outcomes include life expectancy, mortality rates, and disease levels. While there has been some international assistance, there are insufficient supportive infrastructures in place within the country to provide resources and opportunities for Haitians who are trying to attain a higher quality of life. Causes that have resulted in higher levels of structural violence within Haiti include political instability and corruption, as well as the impact of post-colonialism, which has established a caste-based class system within Haiti.
Travel health nursing is a nursing specialty which promotes the health and safety of national and international travelers. Similar to travel medicine, it is an interdisciplinary practice which draws from the knowledge bases of vaccines, epidemiology, tropical medicine, public health, and health education. Travel nursing has experienced an increase in global demand due to the evolution of travel medicine. Travel health nursing was recognized during the 1980s as an emerging occupation to meet the needs of the traveling public, and additional education and training was established. Travel health nurses typically work in "private practice, hospital outpatient units, universities, the government, and the military", and have more opportunities and leadership roles as travel has become more common. However, they also experience organizational and support-related conflicts with general practitioners and patients in healthcare settings.
Debarati Guha-Sapir is an Indian epidemiologist and public health researcher based in Belgium. She is the director of the Université catholique de Louvain Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.
